When an airfoil of appropriate design is moved through air, lift is provided to the airfoil and thereby to any structure attached thereto. In an airplane, the wings as well as other parts are such airfoils. The forward motion of the airplane provides the relative motion between airfoils and surrounding air. In a helicopter, the rotor blades are the airfoils that provide the lift. The helicopter engine turns a shaft which rotates the rotor blades providing lift. In the present invention the airfoils which provide lift are contained in a cylinder which rotates, thereby causing the airfoils to rotate. The cylinder is made to rotate by the passage of air through that portion of the cylinder which constitutes a circumferential turbine. The energized air is supplied by a piston engine turning a propeller, or a turboprop engine, or a turbofan engine, or a turbojet engine. The energized air so supplied is funneled by means of a cowling into a disk-like structure which distributes the energized air so supplied to each turbine of the turbine airfoil devices described. Vertical takeoff, flight, and landing is thus possible. The size of a helicopter is limited by the strength of the rotor shaft structures against centrifugal forces and by the velocity of the rotor tip relative to the speed of sound. Some helicopters have two rotors, but practical limits to increasing the size of vertical takeoff and landing craft utilizing current technology have been reached. Also the differential lift of helicopter blades relative to the air when the helicopter is in forward flight limits the speed of helicopters. The present invention overcomes these limitations by providing for multiple units to be assembled in a large air distributing disk. One or two central engines may provide the energized air needed for all the turbines in all the turbine airfoil units utilized. No shafting or gearing is required to translate the power of the central engines to each of the turbine airfoil units that provide lift. The increased weight required by the disk-like structure and turbines compared to rotors turned by a central shaft as in a helicopter is offset by the increased forward speed capabilities and by the ability of the invention to be scaled up to very large aircraft. The invention thereby makes real a branch of powered flight that has previously been only fanciful, the flying saucers.